Spacelog Apollo 11

Hey, Jim.

Go ahead, Buzz.

Looks like the best way to get a steady view through the monocular is just steady it out and let it close when it's in front of your eye, and then you kind of float up next to it so that you're not touching it at all. It has a very slow drift, and you get a better—steadier view that way.

Sounds good.

How does it feel to be airborne again, Buzz?

Well, I'll tell you, I've been having a ball floating around inside here, back and forth up to one place and back to another. It's like being outside, except more comfortable.

Yes. It sure is nice in here.

I said it's a lot bigger than the last vehicle that Buzz and I were in.

Oh, yes. It's been nice. I've been very busy so far. I'm looking forward to taking the afternoon off. I've been cooking, and sweeping, and almost sewing, and you know, the usual little housekeeping things.

It was very convenient the way they put the food preparation system right next to the NAV station.

Everything is right next to everything in this vehicle.

Not if you're in the …

Jim, it's been a little warm in the machine throughout yesterday and last night during the PTC. It cooled off somewhat with the windows buttoned up, and we've seen suit temperatures of about—the high 40's and cabin temperatures in the low 60's. But this seems to be still a little bit on the warm side.

I understand that it got a little warm during the day and cooled down a little bit when you put the shades up, but you're still a little bit warm. Do you have any moisture condensation or anything like that on the wall?

No, we haven't been able to detect any moisture anyplace in the spacecraft. It seems to be fine.

One of the hydrogen filters—the one that we've got on the hot water—seems to keep flowing when you remove one of the food bags from it. Its flow rate is quite small, right near the end of one out, and that contributes a little bit of moisture to the atmosphere.

Yes, that hydrogen thing, it's—I'm not sure, but I think it's a backpressure problem. If the thing sees any backpressure at all, like when the bag is attached, well the flow rate will slowly decrease to where it's almost zero, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait for that last ounce. You think you have its and you remove the bag, and then you very rapidly thereafter see maybe a glob the size of a dime or a quarter come out and just hang there. That appears to be true even though the opening into the bag is not restricted.

Understand.

In general, I think they do quite a good job, especially on the guns, in removing a lot of the hydrogen bubbles.

Have the water temperatures been good? Are you getting hot water?

Yes. It seems reasonably warm.

We made three cups of coffee today. The last one—you know when all the plumbing was warmed up, the hydrogen gun and everything, was warmest of the three. I don't know who had that one—Neil, did you have that one? How was your coffee? You didn't drink it till later, did you? Anyway, it's pretty good. It's not piping hot, but it sure beats stone-cold coffee.

Jim, we've been sitting here a little over 20 minutes now, How does the thruster firing activity look? Are you ready to go on with this PTC?

Roger. Stand by.

We're all set to go, Mike.

Houston, Apollo 11. PTC has started and it looks good.

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. If you're free for a couple of minutes, we have a procedure here that will let us verify the O₂ flow transducer and at the same time get some more of our cabin enrichment out of the way. Over.

Stand by.

Go ahead, Houston. We're ready to copy.

Roger. The primary purpose of this is, as I mentioned, to let us check out your O₂ flow transducer. However, we still need about 2 hours' worth of cabin enrichment, so we'd like to keep the vent that we're going to set up going for this purpose. Okay. We want you to install the cabin vent quick disconnect which you'll find in compartment R-6, that is Romeo 6, on the urine connector on panel 251. When this is completed, verify that the waste stowage vent valve is closed, and then open or position the waste management overboard drain to the DUMP position. Over.

Okay. Understand that. Install the cabin quick disconnect out of R-6 on the 251 urine connector and verify that the waste dump valve is closed, and say again the last part.

Roger. And then put the waste management overboard drain valve into the DUMP position. Over.

Roger. Put the waste management overboard drain valve to the DUMP position.

Okay, Houston. That configuration is set up.

11, this is Houston. Say again, please.

You do have the O₂ flow transducer checkout setup accomplished.

Okay. Understand you have opened the drain valve at this time.

That's … It's in DUMP.

Roger. We're not getting telemetry data from you right due to low signal strength. There it comes back. I expect it'll probably take us anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour to see an increase in O₂ flow due to the size of the cabin and of course of the small size of the drain. Over.

Houston, Apollo 11.

Go ahead, 11.